_Bertha_, who has sent her painting to the exhibition, wants to make use of _Axel's_ "goodness" to secure the grace of one of the art jurors. _Bertha._ You would not make a sacrifice for your wife, would you? _Axel._ Go begging? No, I don't want to do that. _Bertha_ immediately concludes that he does not love her and that, moreover, he is jealous of her art. There is a scene. _Bertha_ soon recovers. But bent on gaining her purpose, she changes her manner. _Bertha._ Axel, let's be friends! And hear me a moment. Do you think that my position in your house--for it is yours--is agreeable to me? You support me, you pay for my studying at Julian's, while you yourself cannot afford instruction. Don't you think I see how you sit and wear out yourself and your talent on these pot-boiling drawings, and are able to paint only in leisure moments? You haven't been able to afford models for yourself, while you pay mine five hard-earned francs an hour. You don't know how good--how noble--how sacrificing you are, and also you don't know how I suffer to see you toil so for me. Oh, Axel, you can't know how I feel my position. What am I to you? Of what use am I in your house? Oh, I blush when I think about it! _Axel._ What talk! Isn't a man to support his wife? _Bertha._ I don't want it. And you, Axel, you must help me. I'm not your equal when it's like that, but I could be if you would humble yourself once, just once! Don't think that you are alone in going to one of the jury to say a good word for another. If it were for yourself, it would be another matter, but for me--Forgive me! Now I beg of you as nicely as I know how. Lift me from my humiliating position to your side, and I'll be so grateful I shall never trouble you again with reminding you of my position. Never, Axel! Yet though _Bertha_ gracefully accepts everything _Axel_ does for her, with as little compunction as the ordinary wife, she does not give as much in return as the latter. On the contrary, she exploits _Axel_ in a thousand ways, squanders his hard-earned money, and lives the life of the typical wifely parasite.